Surface Book

17 Nov 2015

Announced on October 6, 2015 at Microsoft’s event in New York City, the Surface Book is the first 2-in-1 laptop ever built by Microsoft. The new device features a 13.5-inch display with 267ppi, and has backlit keys, and PixelSense for touch. Inside, the Surface Book is sporting the latest NVIDIA GeForce GPU, GDDR5 RAM, and a 6th-en Intel Core Skylake Processor. Microsoft says the Surface Book will offer 12-hours of battery life per charge and claims their device is twice as fast as Apple’s MacBook Pro.

A definite surprise of the event — which also included the likes of the Surface Pro 4, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL — the Surface Book took grand honors with wow-factor as it was really the only total surprise of the event. While it was rumored that a larger Surface was on the way, no one expected something of this caliber.

What is the Surface Book

Microsoft’s first 2-in-1 laptop/tablet is a big one. The Surface Book isn’t your average laptop however, it has some pretty insane specs — and Microsoft claims it is twice as fast as Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop. The 13.5-inch device has a detachable, full-size keyboard with and integrated trackpad, and the 10-point multitouch display only adds to the fun. You can use the Surface Pen to get down to the nitty gritty as well.

The Surface Book does have some resemblance to the Surface Pro 4, but it definitely packs a punch when it comes to power. It’s sporting Intel’s latest Skylake processor, so you know it can take nearly whatever you throw at it. Without the keyboard, the Surface Book is a powerful tablet Panos Panay described the separated Surface Book as a ‘digital clipboard’ on stage, based on an A4 sized piece of paper. When split, the tablet portion sports around 3 hours of battery life, but the rotational fulcrum hinge will allow you to use the Surface Book in multiple positions without separating it from the primary battery.

Surface Book Specifications

Operating System: Windows 10

Display Size: 13.5-inch PixelSense Display

Display Resolution: 3000x2000 (267 ppm)

Processor: 6th Generation Intel Core i5 or i7

RAM: 8GB or 16GB

Internal Storage: 128GB to 1TB

Rear Camera: 8MP with 1080P HD video

Front Camera: Windows Hello face-authentication & 5MP camera

Battery: Up to 12 hours battery life for video playback

Dimensions as laptop: 9.14 x 12.3 x 0.51-0.90 inches

Dimensions as tablet: 8.67 x 12.3 x 0.30 inches

Weight as laptop: Non-GPU: 3.34 lbs., GPU: 3.48 lbs.

Weight as tablet: 1.6 lbs.

Price: Starts at $1,499

Pricing and Availability

Microsoft will be offering five different configurations of the Surface Book, with the base model offering 128GB SSD, 8GB of RAM and an Intel Core i5 processor for $1499. A step up will get you a 256GB SSD along with 8GB of RAM and Intel’s Core i5 for $1699. For $1899, you can get the discrete GPU, 256GB SSD, Intel’s Core i5 and 8GB of RAM.

For the Core i7, pricing starts at $2099, which comes with a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM and dGPU. The top of the line model comes in at $2699, which offers 512GB SSD, 16GB of RAM and the discrete GPU. The Surface Book was made available to the masses for purchase on October 26, 2015.